My First UX Research Case Study: Designing for Financial Wellness

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash

With my first UX Research journey completed at Hyper Island, I am documenting the process for sharing and feedback.

Context

As a UX consultant, I am advising a third-party financial entrepreneur. They plan to develop a financial app to improve the financial wellness of people in their early and midlife stages.

“With so many financial apps now, how can we differentiate our app?”

Let’s see how I approached this from hypotheses to recommendations!

Process Overview

Target Persona

Meet David, who is……

• in early/mid-career & life stage
• able & willing to enjoy life
• want to improve financial wellness

Prioritized Hypotheses

5 initial prioritized hypotheses based on David’s needs:

1. Investment — Users need professional advice, even with a fee
2. Goal setting — Users need to use the app for achieving financial goals
3. Budget & Overdue — Users need help to avoid over budget or missing due dates
4. Financial Tracking — Users need an overview but not too detailed
5. Motivation — Users need motivations to use apps continuously

Screener Survey

I distributed a short survey with 22 of 26 respondents within my target persona:

• Aged 25 to 44
• Interested in financial status
• Able and willing to enjoy life

User Interview

I conducted 8 in-depth interviews to understand their financial habits, frustrations, and expectations. Key quotes, insights and principles are:

Quotes

Users say …

*Names have been changed to protect the anonymity of interviewees.

Insights

Users …

• are willing to pay for expert investment advice instead of managing themselves.
• do not rely on an app for achieving financial goals.
• do not need budget & over due reminder, and do not mind even spend a bit more sometimes.
• manually track financial status but want consolidated and automated tracking features.
• want a simple UI with customized services.

Principles

Let our users …

• save time with investment guidance
• control their money
• get meaningful functions, not just reminders
• grasp consolidated and accurate financial status efficiently
• get a simple, smooth and caring app

Card Sorting

8 Interviewees were required to sort 16 features into categories of Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Don’t Want*.

(Categorized Must Have, Should Have as “Yes”; Could Have as “Maybe”; and Don’t Want as “No”.)*

*Names have been changed to protect the anonymity of interviewees.

So…

• All wanted “Visualization financial status”
• Few or none wanted “AI budget”, “Over budget alert” or “Show-off”
• Unclear for the rest

Recommendations

1. Further study how to customize efficient investment functions for different users.
2. Deprioritize Goal setting and Budget & Overdue.
3. **Focus on Financial tracking.** Based on pain points received, further study how to deliver a consolidated, automated and accurate tracking function.
4. Further define “simple & customized UI”. Explore other motivations for long-term usage.

Conclusion

The research highlighted an opportunity to differentiate the app by focusing on specific features for users’ real needs and lifestyles with empathy.

Refined Target Persona - more about David:

• improves finances, without overwhelming
• seeks guidance, without complexity
• masters status, without efforts

Focus Areas for the App:

• Effortless Financial Overview
• Curated Investment Guidance
• Smooth User-friendly Interface

Reflections — “CAN” Theory

My own AHA moments include:

Concrete hypotheses

Should combine the hypothesis of “Budget & overdue” under “Financial status tracking” to avoid overlapping.

Active listening

Listening to interviewees actively led to more meaningful insights than following the question list like a robot.

Neutral’s power

Keep silent and do not reflect, the interviewees will open up and continue.